Vandals Shatter Car Windows, Nn Police Say

NEWPORT NEWS — Vandals, possibly armed with a pellet gun or slingshot, went on a weekend shooting spree throughout Newport News, shattering the windows of about 90 cars, police said Monday.

The preliminary damage estimates, said police spokesman Lynn James, amount to about $10,000. In almost all cases, she said, windows of cars parked on the street were shot out.

Police said vandals began their rampage sometime Friday evening shooting out the windows of about nine cars along Maxwell Lane and Keith Road and another 40 cars in the Harpersville and Ballard roads area. Most of the damage, said James, occurred before 11 p.m.

The next night, vandals targeted the Deep Creek Road area, where they smashed the windows of some 11 cars between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. A short time later, the Village Green neighborhood was hit, and the windows to about 30 cars were shot out.

Village Green resident Samuel Ward was one of the victims. The window of Ward's 1972 Maverick was shattered while his van and truck were spared.

"This makes me want to hurt somebody," Ward said Monday afternoon. "You're just minding your own business and somebody does this. It's just stupid."

Ward didn't see or hear anything and, in fact, was notified by an officer who was in the area investigating complaints of his neighbors. Some residents, however, reported seeing a blue or brown mid-sized car with a loud muffler in the same time frame that much of the vandalism occurred.

Police also believe there may have been more than one person involved because, in at least one case, windows of cars parked on both sides of the street were shot out. James said it appears the vandals simply made one pass, shooting out of both the passenger and driver side windows of their car.

One Village Green resident said it almost seemed as if every other car was shot at, possibly suggesting the vandals were using some type of air rifle that, "they had to pump up after firing."

Another resident, who asked not to be named, said one police officer told her the shooting may have been done by a group of teens who "were having some kind of contest" to see how much damage they could cause.

James, however, said she had no information about that possibility.

This was at least the third time in less than a year that vandals have cruised through the streets shooting at windows. Last April, two men were charged with vandalizing more than 50 cars in the Hilton, Hidenwood, Deep Creek and lower Denbigh sections of the city.

In November, two others were charged with shooting out at least 60 car windows in the Hilton and Harpersville Road areas.

James said police are interviewing neighborhood residents and trying to establish if this weekend's rash of vandalism is "connected to the earlier arrests."